Reykjavík!

BandRockPunk

"You keep waiting for them to fall down, sometimes they do. And it looks really cool, too. While their assault is indeed schizophrenic and cacophonic, the songs make sense and are pretty awesome, all shouty and then a bit soft. I wouldn't miss it for anything on TV."

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Biography

Reykjavík! should need no introduction to the discerning music snob or his friend, the brutish cro-mag. Their 2006 Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy) produced début, Glacial Landscapes, Religion, Oppression and Alcohol, was pretty much salivated over by everyone who came in contact with it, topping every Icelandic critics’ list, getting them spots at shows and festivals all over the world including appearances at SXSW, MiDEM, Eurosonic, By:larm, Spot, Les Grandes Traversées. It was distributed in Europe via CARGO Music, sold a bunch and scored some great reviews from European media (especially German media, for some reason).

They also played a lot of squats, dirty clubs, people’s homes and a submarine shelter.

2008 has seen Reykjavík! tarnishing their already abrasive style. Scrapping a half-finished album, the band decided to go all out and make the sonic boom of white noise that they had yearned for. Enter a collaboration with Bedroom Community noise-master Ben Frost, who has brought out the darker side of Reykjavík! in a big, bad, brutal way.

Press:‘[…]crammed into a tiny performing space at the 12 Tonar record store, Reykjavik! earned that exclamation point with more contained and addictive abandon, like a Nineties Sub Pop version of the Dead Boys -- with their own crowd-surfing Stiv Bators in singer Bóas Hallgrimsson -- in both the cover mayhem of David Bowie's "Changes" and the shredded-Cheap Trick original "All Those Beautiful Boys." Reykjavik!'s debut album on 12 Tonar is called Glacial Landscapes, Religion, Oppression and Alcohol -- a concise description of what it's like to be teenage here and why so many bands sound so good.’-David Fricke, Rolling Stone magazine

‘”I’d like especially to welcome all members of the foreign press and record company executives. We love music!” exclaimed Reykjavík!s cardigan-clad singer-guitarist as his five-piece band took the stage. Easily the loudest band of the evening (if not the loudest band in all of Iceland), Reykjavík! dropped punk barnburners that set the singer’s throaty vocals – one part Thom Yorke, three parts desperate screech – over speedy, deftly syncopated stomp, with the guitarist shouting coarse interjections like an Icelandic Flava Flav. Their salvo of jagged guitars and desperate wailing was sometimes hard to take, but during some well-conceived passages – especially when the singer and guitarist engaged in some syncopated call-and-response – it was clear that Reykjavík! would have set a smaller venue on fire.’-Christian Hoard

“The next set was one of the highlights of my trip.I caught local band Reykjavik! the previous night and thought they were a fun band.They were more like caged animals in the tiny enviroment of 12 Tonar and stormed through their set with their singer trying to cover every bit of ground in the shop pushing through audience members to serenade the ones at the back.At one point the singer put his arm around me and tried to get me to sing along.I couldn't help him,though I would have faired better with their rowdy cover of Bowie's "Changes" a few songs earlier.It was a highly charged and entertaining set.I've a sneaky suspicion that the NME may take the band to their hearts in the future.”-Lorne Thompson, CDtimes.co.uk

‘For an album bearing Iceland’s identifying hallmarks as its title, Reykjavík!’s debut is surprisingly un-Icelandic, especially in its frenetic and swerving mood swings and crackling, yet minimal energy, making fast trademarks of alienated, ironic mockery, twangy, harried guitars and the hellish croaks that are Bóas’s vocals. The dizzying and malicious desperation of stunners Blame It On Gray, All Those Beautiful Boys and Dragonsmell are pure irreverent genius, and the album itself has a well-rounded balance of unpredictability and solid, decisive direction.’-SE, Reykjavik Grapevine (grapevine.is), July 2006

‘[…] we were spoon-fed the third and final exercise in complete and spontaneous onstage awesomeness. Reykjavík! were an immense fireball, a sickeningly brilliant reconstruction of modern rock so majestic and pure that it was difficult to watch and even harder to describe.’-Sindri Eldon, Reykjavík Grapevine

‘Reykjavík! know the value of showmanship […] this behaviour has always been considered cool in rock and roll and I’m not going to question that opinion. When asked to play an encore, guitarist Haukur responded: “We’ve only been a band for a year. We don’t know any more songs!” That’s Reykjavík!: Really fast, really short, really stupid, and pretty darn good.’-n/a, Reykjavík Grapevine

‘Walking into Hressó on December 21st to see a Þórir gig, it felt a bit like New Year’s Day—the party had obviously already happened, and Reykjavík! was entirely responsible.’Bart Cameron, Reykjavík Grapevine

‘Furious grinding guitars and a propulsive rythmn section are complemented by a front man who looks not unlike a young Zach de la Rocha throwing himself